Paradox
by Chrystel Malfoy-Potter
Summary: QLC. Paradox: A statement that apparently contradicts itself, yet might be true. Something that is easily created by Time-Turners or does it? This is what Hermione is aiming for, at the very least, to prevent her curse from happening.


**Disclaimer**: Much to my dismay, and for many others I am sure, the book series _Harry Potter_ does not, and will never, belong to me. So thank you J. K Rowling for allowing us to _borrow_ your characters and books.

**Warnings**: Completely AU, time travel, a bit dark, and other wacky things.

**AN**: I somehow got persuaded to join the **Quidditch League Competition** so I'll be writing a oneshot every two weeks to try to win this tournament. Every two weeks, I will be given a prompt that I will have to fulfill as Captain of the Kenmare Kestrels. The stories must be T-rated, minimum 1,000 words and maximum 3,000. Wish me luck so that my team and I can win. =)

This week, I have to write about an **AU where Remus Lupin has bitten a student during the Prisoner of Azkaban book**. I may be a fan of AU, but even I find this difficult. So, I went about it in another way by using the ever-popular Time-Turner object that appeared in that book.

Hope you guys enjoy.

**Summary**: QLC. Paradox: A statement that apparently contradicts itself, yet might be true. Something that is easily created by Time-Turners or does it? This is what Hermione is aiming for, at the very least, to prevent her curse from happening.

**Word-Count: 1,472 words (including the title).**

_**Paradox**_

_**"Paradox: a statement that apparently contradicts itself, yet might be true."**_

**Wikipedia**

It hurt, the power burning through her vein, straining to answer the call of the full moon. The pain was such that she couldn't only howl with all her might. Bones extending far faster than her skin could keep up with, breaking and reconstructing at such a fast rate that her nerves could only keep up with the pain. Hair receding back into her skin, leaving space for the smaller strands of fur to cover her whole body.

But the worst part was the scar where she had been bitten. Always present like a small burning flame, it grew into a molten flame under the white light of the Lady of the Night. It surpassed everything in turns of her transformation, rendering her practically a cripple every time she went through the process. Only the coolness of the Wolfsbane Potion helped a bit, but just enough for her to not loose her mind.

Such was the fate that Hermione Granger suffered month after month, as a Child of the Night! The curse being bequeathed to her by the beloved Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher: Professor Remus Lupin on that fateful rescue mission that caused more suffering than good.

By trying to help her past self escape the werewolf, she had unintentionally brought the ire of the wolf on Harry and her. Harry had tried to help her, sacrificing himself so that his friend could escape. In mere seconds, he was teared into pieces, barely registering his death. The wolf howled in victory.

Hermione was frozen at the gruesome sight. Her eyes wide, body trembling while her mind screamed at her to escape. The claw slashed her shoulder in a teasing manner, the beast gaining pleasure at seeing it's victim tremble in front of it's might.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" The green light hit the werewolf before it would finish killing the student. As the body fell, Hermione's savior was revealed. It was the none other than the dreaded, most hated, Potions Professor, Severus Snape.

He was the last thing Hermione saw, as blessed darkness soothed her panic state. Later, she would have wished that he wouldn't have saved her, as life soon took a turn for the worse.

— "_Some paradoxes have revealed errors in definitions assumed to be rigorous, and have caused axioms of mathematics and logic to be re-examined."_ Definition of **Paradox** in _**Wikipedia**_. —

Being a Muggleborn was already a great disadvantage for Hermione. She already knew and accepted the fact ever since she started on her third year, eyes more open to all of the discrimination she hadn't previously felt.

It grew worse when word got out that she had been bitten by a werewolf. Students soon began to shun her, treating as if she was some vicious, dark, savage, beast instead of a scared human being.

It grew worse on her end, when an accusation began to grow popular among the students.

_Hermione Granger killed Harry Potter._

The fact, in itself, wasn't true, as it was the cursed professor who had unwillingly killed his student. Still, the core in itself was true, hitting Hermione harder than ever as she too began to believe that she had killed her best friend, guilt racking her already tormented heart, body and soul. Only Ron Weasley tried to uplift her spirit, staying steadfastly behind her, protecting her the best he could.

Such a friendship wasn't enough as Ron couldn't always be there for Hermione.

In stepped in a person that would have never contacted Hermione if it wasn't for her brain and her intelligence that still shone among such a lonely existence. Alongside such a person shone Salvation, Home and a Family that accepted her (somewhat).

His name was Croaker. He appeared as an average person, so average that he was easily forgettable, something that Hermione nearly fell weren't for the counter-spell he had cast so that she could recall. On the other hand, his job was quite unforgettable as Head of the Department of Mysteries.

The Department of Mysteries gave a freedom that Hermione had longed since before that fateful night. Only one rule must be observed for her research, Croaker explicitly told her with grave seriousness, _to study only what is unexplainable until it becomes known, used and mastered by the most common soul._ It was simply heaven for one whose whole life revolved around solving the many mysteries surrounding her.

Unsurprisingly, she decided to delve into the mystery of the entity known as Time. Grains, rivers, paradoxes, … every sort of angle, she dived in straight on. Her main focus revolving around the Time-Turners that she touched once during that horrifying year at Hogwarts.

So far, that instrument could only go back an hour per turn, the maximum number of turns being seventy-four, as people tended to loose the number of counts soon after. She was aiming to create a Time-Turner that could go back a day per turn or a year per turn. She was even thinking of pushing things even further, wanting to create a Time-Turner that could go back to a certain date

Fortunately for her, she had money, information (even as limited as it was) and her boss' backing for her project. Hermione secretly thought that he expected her to crash and burn on such a subject so that she could move on to more lucrative theories. Even if she abandoned the theory, she would have brought a new source of information to the mystical theme.

One day, she stumbled upon a paradox that led her to create a second paradox in itself. What sort of paradox happened on that very day, you may ask? The simple bootstraps paradox that led to her seeing a list of information on her desk out of the blue.

_— Bootstrap paradox: Can a time traveler send himself information with no outside source?—_

The forest was just as dark and dangerous as she remembered. The full moon calling for her to transform into something that she was not. It was only due to her biological clock that allowed her to resist the pull (something that she had theorized but not tested).

According to the positions of the stars and the moon, and her vivid memory of that time, she had arrived fifteen minutes before the Chase.

Voices reached her sensitive ears: her own and someone that she had longed to hear for more than thirty years. Hermione's fists clenched slightly, her gaunt frame trembling from restraining her tears. If she had known how important he was in the future, she would have been the one to sacrifice herself, not Harry.

(Indeed, in the future, a branch of Death Eaters made a Coup d'État that worked successively. As Hermione worked for the Department of Mysteries, she had been protected by her colleagues and her anonymity. The same story could not be said for all other Half-Bloods and Muggleborns. But that's a story for another time.)

Just like a predator, she waited, crouching low, for her prey. The howl, the beginning of her numerous nightmares, rang out.

It was time for Hermione to act.

She heard her younger self bring about the ire of a werewolf, that faulty mating call that she had thought would save their past-past selves. Softly, Future-Hermione growled softly, attracting the attention of the wolf just enough so that it would pause in it's attack of the smaller prey.

Just enough for a Sirius Black, turned into a big, black, Grimm, to attack the werewolf and buy enough time for the students to escape.

Future-Hermione saw herself becoming transparent, little-by-little, as a tingly sensation spread through her body. She smiled, a sad, wistful, smile. She didn't know what would happen in the future, and she didn't care.

She had survived this incident, creating a paradox to boot. For a cursed, pathetic, Muggleborn, she had gone even further than any of those so-called Purebloods that dared to mock her.

Hermione only hoped that she would survive whatever will happen next. After all, only a war could be worse than her living hell she had lived in that parallel universe.

Future-Hermione stood up, far away from the whole commotion that was going on somewhere in the forest. "It's finally over." She whispered softly into the night, underneath the full moon, the stars and the bristling breeze. Her body disappearing just as silently as ever, Nature cleaning up the fact that she had ever been there.

**_The question one could ask oneself was: did this version of Hermione even existed in the first place?_**

_— Temporal paradox: What happens when a time traveler does things in the past that prevent him from doing them in the first place? —_

**AN: Not my usual cup of tea, but hope this works.**


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